-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Andrew Wyeth , the American painter perhaps best known for his painting of a young woman in a field , `` Christina 's World , '' has died , according to an official with the Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania .

Andrew Wyeth received the National Medal of Arts from President Bush in November 2007 .

Wyeth , 91 , died in his sleep Thursday night at his home near Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , according to Lora Englehart , public relations coordinator for the museum .

The acclaimed artist painted landscapes and figure subjects and worked mostly in tempera and watercolor .

He was widely celebrated inside and outside of the art world .

Wyeth received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 , and President Nixon sponsored an exhibition of Wyeth 's paintings at the White House .

In 2007 , President Bush awarded Wyeth the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution to American arts and culture .

Two years earlier , Wyeth and his wife , Betsy , presented to the White House his painting `` Jupiter , '' which is displayed in the residence 's family sitting room .

Bush issued a statement Friday saying that he and first lady Laura Bush `` deeply mourn '' the death of Wyatt .

`` Mr. Wyeth captured America in his paintings of his native Pennsylvania and Maine , '' Bush said . `` On behalf of the American people , Laura and I offer our sincere condolences to Betsy and the Wyeth family . ''

Wyeth , who lived in Chadds Ford , Pennsylvania , and Maine , `` has been enormously popular and critically acclaimed since his first one-man show in 1937 , '' according to a biography in InfoPlease .

His main subjects were the places and people of Chadds Ford and Cushing , Maine .

`` Christina 's World , '' painted in 1948 , shows a disabled Maine neighbor who drags herself through a field toward her house in the distance . The painting , displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York , has been regarded as Wyeth 's most popular .

`` His ` Helga ' pictures , a large group of intimate portraits of a neighbor , painted over many years , were first shown publicly in 1986 , '' the InfoPlease biography says . Those were painted in Pennsylvania .

Wyeth , the youngest child of painter N.C. Wyeth , formally studied art with his father as a teen , `` drawing in charcoal and painting in oils , the media of choice for N.C. Wyeth . It was during the family 's annual summer vacations in Port Clyde , Maine , that Andrew was able to experiment with other media to find his own artistic voice , '' according to a biography in the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine .

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NEW : Bush says Wyeth 's work `` captured America ''

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Wyeth died in his sleep at home in Pennsylvania at 91

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His most famous painting is that of a young girl in a field

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His `` Helga '' portraits were first shown in 1986